Shoe insole



' Patented Aug. 25, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD E. STOUT, QF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

SHOE INSOLE.

Application filed June 7,

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD E. S'roUT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana,haverinvented a new and useful Shoe Insole, of which the following is aspecification.

It is the object of my invention to produce an in-sole which combines inone structure the goed features of a cushion in-sole and a non-cushionin-sole, with none of the\dis advantages of either; which supports thearches of the foot while cushioning the heel and the front part of thefoot; which furnishes a better rest for the heel bone] or oscalcis, byboth supporting its inner side and thus forming a socket, and bycushioning it if desired; and which avoids the objectionable creepingand wadd/ing of the cushioning material which so frequently occurs withcushion shoes, probably because the cushioning material is pushed upinto a wad by the back-and-forth action of the ball of the foot in theshoe.

The accompanying drawing illustrates my invention; Fig. 1 is a verticalcentral section through a shoe sole which carries an in-sole embodyingmy invention, with the relative position of part of the shoe-upper andof the foot indicated in dotted lines; Fig. 2 is a perspective view ofthe in-sole shown in Fig. 1, with the sock lining turned back; Figs. 8,4, and 5 are sectional views substantially on the lines 3-3, 4-4, and5-5 of Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a perspective view, looking upward, of thelambs-wool cushioning material which I prefer to use; and Fig. 7 is aview similar to Fig. 2, showing this lambswool cushion at the front partof the shoe, and a cushion at the heel.

My in-sole is arranged to be used in the usual manner on the inside of ashoe, and to rest on the shoe out-sole 10. The insole usually comp-risesa supporting piece 11, usually of leather, beneath which at the edge theusual shoe-upper 12 extends in the regular way. As so far described,this is standard practice.

Upon the shank of the in-sole I mount a comparatively hard shank-piece15, which extends below and supports the various arches of the foot.This shank-piece 15 may be made of any suitable, light, relatively hardmaterial, such as leather, courqk, or some suitable porousmoldedrm-cgjgining compositiorlgjs properly slape as by 1923. Serial No.643,824.

cutting or molding, to support firmly but without too great rigidity thevarious arches of the foot, including both the inner and outerlongitudinal arches and the front and rear transverse arches. Thisshank-piece 15 rises highest at its internal edge 16, as is clear fromFigs. 1, 2, 3, and 7, where it follows a line substantially like thedotted line 16 in Fig. 1, and gradually slopes downward and outward toits external edge, where it is usually substantially flush with the topof the in-sole piece 11. This slant of the upper surface of theshank-piece 15 from its inner edge to its outer edge is itself arched,to provide a support for the transverse arches of the foot. At thefront, the middle part of the shank-piece projects further forward thando the sides, to form a metatarsal support 17 which lies behind theheads of the second, third, and fourth metatarsal bones but allows theheads of the first and fifth metatarsal bones to lie beside it. Thismetatarsal support 17 is itself transversely arched, as is clear fromFig. 5, and thus supports the anterior transverse arch of the foot. Atthe rear, I prefer to continue the shank-piece 15 backward on the innerside, to form a rear fingerlaih lies beneath the inner side of the ieelbone or oscalcis. This linger 18 is transversely tapered, so that it isthickest at its edge toward the inside of the foot and tapers of to zerothickness at about the middle longitudinal line of the heel bone, as isclear from Figs. 2 and 4. Thus the upper surfaces of the finger 18toward the inside and the in-sole 11 toward the outside form a sort ofsocket in which the heel bone rests, which socket assists in the supportof the heel bone and helps to put the foot in the right position so thatthe weight will not bear on the inside of the longitudinal center of thefoot and cause it to turn inward. This finger 18 and the shank-piece 15work together to this en Preferably beneath both the heel and beneaththe ball of the foot and the toes I provide cushions 2O and 21. Thesecushions do not extend over the bulk of the shank-piece 15, so that theshoe has a hard shank but provides cushions at the heel and at the balland toes. The cushion 20, when used, preferably overlies the nger 18, aswell as the heel end of the in-sole 11, but does not extend forward overthe body of the shank piece 15. The cushion 21 preferably underlies themetatarsal support 17 of the shank-piece, as is clear from Fig. l, andeXtends backward at the sides of this metatarsal support, as is clearfrom Figs. 2 and 7.

Over the complete in-sole, and covering the shank piece l5 as well asthe cushions 2O and 21, I prefer to provide a sock lining 25, as iscommon with in-sole structures. This sock lininO` is shown lifted andturned forward in Fig. 2, and is completely omitted in Fig. 7.

For the cushions of the in-sole, I prefer to use a material formed of amultitude of fibers having their upper ends anchored in a membrane,which cushion material forms the subject of my co-pending applicationSerial No. 643,825 of even ling date herewith. The best form of suchmaterial I know of is lambs-wool (including wool from either sheep orlambs), with the skin 26 uppermost so that the wool 27 is downward, asset forth in such co-pending application. lVhile this lambs-wool cushionmaterial may be used for both the front and the rear cushions I haveshown it (Fig. 7 used only as a front cushion, with ordinary felt orsimilar material as the rear cushion; for `the lambs-wool cushion isespecially desirable for the front cushion, because it is there that thetendency to crowd out the cushioning material from beneath the frontends of the inetatarsals and to wad it into a ball just ahead of thesocket which such front ends thus work for themselves in the cushioningmaterial is especially aptto occur. This wadding of the cushioningmaterial is oftentimes a source of considerable discomfort, if not ofserious foot trouble. By the use of the lambswool cushion, with thefiesh side or skin 26 upward and the wool 27 downward, I find that thiscreeping and wadding of the cushioning material is practically whollyavoided, because each individual liber or hair of the wool is anchoredat its upper end in the lamb-skin, and so is held from being pushed outof place. When the rear end of the first cushion 2l extends beneath themetatarsal support 17, the wool of such cushion is conveniently cut offslopingly to avoid bulging.

I claim as my invention:

l. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, and a raisedshank-piece of relatively hard material mounted over the supe portingbase and having a finger projecting rearward below the heel on the innerside only.

2. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, and a raisedshank-piece of relatively hard material mounted over the supporting baseand having a finger projecting rearward below the heel on the inner sideonly, said finger being wedged-shaped in transverse cross-section withbase of the wedge toward the inner side of the finger.

3. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shank-piece ofrelatively hard material mounted over the supporting base and having allinger projecting rearward below the heel on the inner side only, saidfinger being wedge-shaped in transverse cro-sssection with base of thewedge toward the inner side of the finger, and a heel cushion overlyingsaid finger and the` rear end of the supporting base.

4. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shankepiece ofrelatively hard material over the shank of said base, and a cushion overthe front part of said supporting base, said cushion comprising thelambswool with the skin-side upward.

5. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shank-piece ofrelatively hard material over the shank of said base, and a cushion overthe front part of said supporting base, said cushion comprising amultitude of fibers and a membrane in which the upper ends of suchfibers are anchored.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Indianapolis,Indiana, this 7th day of May, A. D. one thousand nine hundred and twentythree.

EDWARD E. STOUT.

